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Chapter 256 Stray Arrows

The excitement could be felt in the air. Everyone was pumped up and gathered in the village square. It had been a long time since they witnessed such an exciting sparring session. magic, qi and adrenaline thrummed through the veins of every warrior who was watching the demonstration. Zero didn’t know who would emerge victorious. Both ladies were equally strong and he couldn’t help but want to root for both of them at the same time.

As Zenobia and Mitchnew stepped into the magically reinforced arena, Lovina wondered if she missed out any reinforcements. Zero had a hand in this and the witch couldn’t help but run through her mental checklist as the master of ceremonies began riling the crowd up.

"You might know them already," Lowis smiled.

The crowd cheered and Zero joined in with Seff on his lap. Ruth was on standby as part of the security team in case something went out of hand. Karris couldn’t seat so near to the front because nobody could predict how the fight would turn out. They didn’t want to risk Karris getting severely wounded from a stray arrow during the fight even if the ladies were using dummy arrows for it.

"On the right, we have Lady Zenobia, our Chieftess and an agile archer who is known for her graceful war dance!"

The crowd cheered and Zenobia raised her bow. The half-elf-half-rabbit-beastman warrior grinned. She came fully prepared with her quiver full of twenty arrows dipped in red ink without arrowheads. Three short daggers were strapped onto the side of each muscular thigh. They were practice daggers and whetted down to be blunt but could still be proven dangerous in the correct hands. Her brown leather leotard left nothing to the imagination and Zenobia had her hair tied into a bun to prevent it from obstructing her vision.

The chieftess looked very much like a warrior queen but Mitchnew’s presence didn’t waver in Zenobia’s glory. Instead, the dark elf was like a shadow waiting to ensnare her target in one fell swoop. Lowis smiled and looked to his left.

"On the left, we know who this is. As one of the most infamous assassins of all-time, famed for killing within a strike, Mitchnew."

The dark elf didn’t do anything and continued to stand nonchalantly at the side while the crowd went wild. Unlike Zenobia who was rather muscular, tall and heavy chested, Mitchnew was sinewy and thin with a very flat chest. The seamstress wore a tight-fitting black leather archer costume that covered her from head to toe. The black hood covered her head and Mitchnew wore a mask over her mouth and nose, giving her red eyes glowed ominously. If Zero had to compare her to an animal, he would compare her to a raven that resided near Baal’s castle. Mitchnew resembled death and perhaps that was due to the oversized black hood that looked very similar to what Hades wore all the time.

"Today we’ve gathered for the first match of the Martial Exchange Demonstration. Make some noise between the showdown of archers!"

The villagers cheered and Lowis grinned. He should really think of getting himself a side job as the hosting master of ceremonies for events.

"For those of you who don’t know, here’s a short introduction of the warrior’s fighting style. Zenobia is a close to mid-ranged fighter who specialises in rapid shots to suppress her enemy’s movements before closing in with her short daggers. Be careful though, our chieftess is an expert with not only the short bow but also with her daggers that can be used to slash, stab and throw."

Zero took down notes and Seff watched him curiously. The brunet was no fool. Half Moon Village was full of talented individuals and it would be his loss if he didn’t make full use of the event to study different combat styles. Even if Zero wasn’t a bow user, he could take down notes about how bow users fought. The teenager wanted to think of a way to defend against bow users as they posed a lot of threat to melee fighters if they didn’t know magic.

"Most of you might not have seen Mitchnew in action before and honestly, neither have I. However, this is what Sekkin told us and we will simply have to take his word for it even if he isn’t here with us today. Mitchnew’s speciality is assassination with a longbow that she enhances with magic. Her signature move is a one-shot snipe from eight hundred metres away. apart from being an expert marksman, our seamstress is an expert in High Elf Savate, a form of dance-like kickboxing."

The foreign martial art unheard off to many made the spectators curious. Lowis grinned. This was going to be a treat for everyone. Mitchnew might have left the bloody world in her past to live peacefully with her husband in the village but it was difficult to forget one’s roots. Nobody has seen Mitchnew demonstrate her abilities much and it certainly made them wonder what she was capable of. If it wasn’t for Zero’s studies, he wasn’t so sure that the dark elf would willingly participate.

"Last but not least before we start the match, please stay clear of the village square and only watch from the benches or apartments. Although magic enchants have been placed to ensure your safety, the security team will not be held responsible for any unforeseen accidents during the match. If there are no further questions, let us not delay any longer. Cleo, please!"

The dryad grinned and went up to the middle of the village square while the lab members got into position with image capturing magic devices that will show the audience a better view of the match using a gigantic holographic display above the arena space.

Lowis made his hasty escape, not wanting to become tree fertiliser as the dryad worked up magic to convert the barren ground into a small forest. It wasn’t simply a battle of merely skills but wits as well. With ample of shadows and trees to hide behind, both archers would be pushed to their limits. In a new terrain that neither archer knew, it would test their ability to make good and fast battle judgements as well as setting traps for their opponents while avoiding becoming a target.

Seff was taken away to where Karris was. He was too young to be so near the border. On the other hand, Zero decided to jump to a higher spot where he could see everything going on more clearly. The sky bridge was perfect for it and he didn’t think that Roovan or Olaf would be there.

"You like the view from here too?" the Frost Dragon asked and offered Zero some tea.

The teen grinned and accepted a cup. The three of them turned their eyes back to the match that had already begun.

Zenobia was fast with her hands and made traps to alert her if Mitchnew was near. The trap was fairly simple and it was something Zero recognised. The hunters often set up the same trap to know if there was a wild animal in the vicinity. He didn’t know how effective that trap would be against Mitchnew who was also on the hunting team.

On the other hand, the dark elf didn’t bother with traps. Instead, she took to high ground and was studying the direction of the wind, looking for a good spot with a clear view. Mitchnew was careful as she ran around to study the new terrain, opting to stick close to the shadows and cover of tree trunks when she did so.

The two archers were not close to one another and there was no fighting but everyone was nervous for them. The preparation stage progressed steadily and the opponents got closer to discovering each other’s location. It wouldn’t be long before someone launched the first attack. Zero thought that Mitchnew might have a higher chance in initiating the surprise attack. She has the widest angle of view and Zenobia was closing in on her location from the middle grounds.

Roovan grinned when Mitchnew landed on a tampered branch. That alerted Zenobia of where her opponent was and she stopped running to turn back. the chieftess approached with caution and stopped just before entering Mitchnew’s field of vision, cautious about the assassin’s sniping skills.

Zero raised a brow. Why wasn’t Mitchnew doing something about her location? Surely she should know that she’d been discovered. Still, he held his tongue to continue watching.

As Zero suspected, Mitchnew knew when she had given her position away. Instead of cursing or panicking, the dark elf retrieved a small knife and started cutting off barks and vines to make something. Not everyone who saw that understood what the sniper was doing. Zero was also confused until Olaf explained that she was making decoys.

Zenobia crept closer and hide in the cover of the thick undergrowth. The chieftess moved silently and the rustling of bushes could easily be passed off as the breeze. Mitchnew was at the upper canopy of the bush Zenobia was currently hiding under. Now, the only problem was how Zenobia would attack now that she was in position.

Mitchnew sensed something amiss too. the forest was too quiet and her instincts were telling her that Zenobia was already in the area. Luckily, her decoys were complete and Mitchnew slunk back into the cover of shadows. Both archers waited, neither making the first move and the tension rose.

After a few minutes of stillness, Zero couldn’t help but ask why neither archers were moving.

Roovan smiled. "It’s called tactics. mitchnew is waiting for a more favourable position to make her move. She has to get out of the area before Zenobia gets to her now that she has decoys. On the other hand, Zenobia might know where Mitchnew is but she’s at a geographically disadvantageous location. For archers, those on the higher ground has an advantage in terms of field of vision. Before Zenobia can reach the top to where Mitchnew is, she would get shot at and has to defend which would give Mitchnew time to escape. They are both waiting for something to change and give them the advantage because neither of them wants to lose the factor of surprise."

Olaf didn’t say anything as Zero took down notes. The teenager watched diligently and kept his eyes trained on them like a hawk.

The wind blew pleasantly and the clouds floated past to cover the sun for a brief moment. At that exact moment when the sun was covered, both ladies made their move. Zenobia leapt from the bush and hopped her way into the upper canopy but Mitchnew was already setting up her decoys. The dark elf was gone by the time the clouds passed and Zenobia drew her bow back only to find that her target had escaped without a trace. She didn’t have time to worry about it because her next trap was triggered nearby and the chieftess rushed to pursue.

Zero couldn’t help but be impressed by the tricks Mitchnew had at her disposal. The dark elf wasn’t waiting in vain. Other than the weighted decoys, Mitchnew readied small pebbles that she threw at branches she knew were tampered with. In order to throw Zenobia off her trial, the dark elf used sound to distract her.

If it had been Zero, he would have been fooled and stalled. Mitchnew threw them in a way that they would ricochet in opposite directions. Zenobia was fooled the first two times but she soon learnt the trick and ignored them. The dark elf didn’t have a choice but to draw her bow and hid in the tree to wait for Zenobia to appear when she found a good spot.

Zero couldn’t see where Mitchnew was as she lay in wait. The dark elf was well camouflaged. On the other hand, the teenager couldn’t help but worry about Zenobia who was still giving chase.

The twang of a longbow about fifty metres away alerted the chieftess to dodge even though she could not see the threat. Mitchnew clicked her tongue and quickly escaped to avoid a close combat situation.

Zenobia looked back at the headless arrow embedded deep into the tree and gulped. If she hadn’t ducked in time, she would have been brain matter on the forest floor. With or without arrowheads, Mitchnew’s shooting was dangerous.

Zero paled when he saw the embedded arrow. If that had been a stray arrow, would the flimsy mana barrier still hold? He wasn’t doubting Lovina’s skills but Mitchnew was ten times more terrifying today than she usually was. She didn’t seem like she was having a friendly match. The dark elf looked as if she was literally out for blood.

Olaf was having a good time beside Zero. That dark elf was good, way better than his travel companions. He wondered if she was willing to travel with them on a quest to spread the good name of Half Moon Village. The Frost Dragon doubted that the stubborn seamstress would but it might be worth a try.

Mitchnew didn’t look breathless and Zero wondered how the ex-assassin managed that. Zenobia was already sweating and trying to quieten her breathing but the dark elf didn’t look ruffled. Zero observed how Mitchnew never gave up her position of advantage and waited for Zenobia to fall into her trap before firing her arrows. Each time the dark elf missed, she would immediately change her position before Zenobia could track her down. The young doctor also noted how the seamstress tended to stick to the same area that she previously scouted. Mitchnew was a surprisingly cautious person, unlike Zenobia who was willing to fight in her enemy’s territory.

Zenobia counted the arrows and continued to dodge them with barely an inch of her life. they were both given twenty arrows and Zenobia had been careful to collect the arrows Mitchnew fired so that the sniper could no longer go back to refuel her quiver. So far, Mitchnew had only fired five arrows in total. The dark elf was playing it safe and in order to pressure her to fire more arrows, Zenobia had to do something to make the dark elf feel rattled.

Zero felt his eyes widen when Zenobia jumped back down to the forest ground, leaving Mitchnew behind. Did she give up already?

Mitchnew lowered her bow and frowned. The chieftess was a very smart strategist. Could this be one of her tricks to force the dark elf out of hiding? She didn’t know what to expect but staying up in the tree was also not a solution. Zenobia might not come back up this way again and the one who faced a disadvantage would be her in the end. She was down to fifteen arrows while Zenobia still had a full quiver and six daggers. The chieftess had been collecting and disposing of her arrows so the dark elf wasn’t left with much choice. If she gave Zenobia too much time to prepare, she might lose the match of long-distance and be forced into a close combat situation that was disadvantageous to her.

Reluctantly, Mitchnew left her hiding spot much to Zero’s surprise. Olaf decided to be kind and explain the dilemma Mitchnew was facing.

"Zenobia may not be as good of a fighter but she is definitely not someone to be underestimated. The chieftess protected the village for many years even before you came here. She is extremely resourceful form what I heard and Mitchnew knows that. If the chieftess has time to make preparations, Mitchnew would be at a disadvantage. She already used five of her arrows and cannot recollect them back because Zenobia took them. however, the chieftess still has all her weapons and lost nothing."

Zero nodded. Resources were important in drawn-out battles. He thought that creating a good combat style was the only thing he had to do but after watching the archers fight it out, Zero knew that he was inadequate in fighting strategy and techniques. This wasn’t something Ruth or Hua Tuo could teach him. Zero might be book smart but he doubted he could react accordingly if the situation called for it. that was a gap that only experience could fill.

Zenobia was gathering materials for a smokescreen on the forest ground when her ears picked up on unusual movement. The chieftess rolled into a bush nearby for cover when she heard another twang.

This time, Mitchnew didn’t allow the chieftess to get away and followed up quickly with another arrow. Zenobia felt her heart leaping in her mouth when the second arrow missed her nose by a centimetre but that near-death experience didn’t stop the seasoned warrior. Instead, she became more confident in her movements and choose to break for a sprint instead of crawling through the bushes.

Mitchnew cussed when Zenobia started hopping away. Her next two arrows missed when Zenobia leapt twice in mid-air, a thing that rabbit beast folks could do. The unpredictability of her movements made it hard for Mitchnew to snipe. Her quiver was already down to half of what it originally was and still, she hasn’t landed a single hit on the agile chieftess.

Zero couldn’t help but put a hand to his chest. That exchange was too close for comfort. His doctor self almost leapt into battle to assess the situation for casualties. He watched through the holographic projections how the arrow missed Zenobia by a centimetre. The chieftess even made a small strangled noise as she made her escape.

Still, the teenager held onto his book tightly and watched as Mitchnew pursued Zenobia. Their positions were now reversed with Mitchnew pursuing and Zenobia running. Both archers have lost the advantage of high grounds by playing a game of tag on the forest grounds. However, Zenobia had the advantage of speed with her and Mitchnew found herself struggling to keep up.

The chieftess found the confidence to release arrows of her own and Zero thought his eyes were playing tricks on him. The chiefess nocked three arrows and fired them in Mitchnew’s direction.

The dark elf dodged them by doing a flip in the air. It looked impressive enough that Zero found him applauding that graceful movement. Still, Mitchnew was at a greater disadvantage now because of it. That flip stalled her for a while and Zenobia used that chance to regain the height advantage, climbing up a tree and nocking her bow once more in rapid succession. The dark elf could only do a back spring and leap to hide behind a tree when the volley of five arrows down on her and embedded themselves into the ground. Zero didn’t know how Zenobia did that. She managed to fire five arrows in less than a second and more impressively, Mitchnew dodged them all with that short distance.

There was no telling who was more agile and had a quicker reaction. The young doctor thought that both Zenobia and Mitchnew were amazing. Olaf was amused by how many notes Zero was taking during that short interaction. The boy flipped a page and the Frost Dragon wondered if it was a reflection essay tasked by Ruth judging by how diligent Zero described the encounter.

Both archers were now down to half their original number of arrows. The match was only concluded when the other party was marked with paint. Lowis watched intently as Zenobia put some distance between Mitchnew and herself after that fast-paced exchange. Everything in the forest seemed to still again as the archers went into hiding.

Zero felt the adrenaline pulse through his veins and his mind worked at a million miles per hour, trying to analyse the possible next course of action. If he were in Zenobia’s or Mitchnew’s position, Zero thought of what he would do while everyone waited for them to take action.

Mitchnew didn’t waste time and pulled out something unexpected in the middle of the match. Zero didn’t know why he seamstress would take a sewing kit into the match but still was interested in what tricks she had up her sleeves. The dark elf didn’t disappoint the crowd when she started tying strings onto her arrows. The threads were only visible under a certain angle of light and were hard to capture on the image capturing device.

Zero scribbled furiously into his book while Mitchnew worked. Her fingers were extremely nimble and soon, all the arrows had threads connecting to them. The seamstress tested the tension and smiled beneath her mask. It wasn’t very common for other people to know the tricks she had. usually, she would use spider demon silk instead of common threads. Sekkin’s spider demon silk was as strong as steel and extremely hard to spot. Mitchnew lost count of how many unfortunate people she had beheaded with this technique. The arrows would simply be a decoy. What Mitchnew was aiming for this time was a formation of traps using the threads. She was going to immobilise Zenobia and end the match in the next ten minutes before it dragged out too long.

Zenobia was ready when the arrow came. being high up had its advantages and the chieftess leapt to the left. She had barely landed when the next arrow came at her. The rabbit beastman could only jump down to avoid that. Mitchnew was firing them faster now and Zenobia didn’t know that she was being led into a trap formation until she felt something in her hair digging into her neck.

Nobody made a sound as Mitchnew jumped forward and stabbed the chieftess with one of her arrows. The blue ink on her leather armour stood out contrastingly against the dull brown and Mitchnew removed her hood.

"Sorry, Chieftess. I guess this is my win."

Zenobia was stunned into silence and it took three full seconds for the audiences to cheer for the victor. Lowis quickly jumped down to declare Mitchnew as the match’s victor and thanked both archers for putting up such a wonderful demonstration.

Zenobia laughed shakily after she was freed from the trap. "I guess I’m really not your match as a warrior."

Mitchnew shook her head and removed the mask covering half her face. "No, you were a good opponent. You made me worry for a little back there when you disappeared. I was forced to come out of hiding to pursue you."

Zero clapped and took down more notes as the ladies shook hands. He was floored by Mitchnew’s clean execution for that trap and wanted to know if he could add in formations into his combat style. There was also that cool looking combo that Zenobia used to shoot and escape. Zero needed a cool combo too when he fought so that the enemies didn’t have time to react.

Olaf watched the young doctor pen down everything and took another sip of his tea only to realise that it was already empty. he looked down at the two archers and smiled. That was a really good match and the dragon wondered if he was able to register as a last-minute participant.

He looked around to try to find someone worthy of sparring with and frowned. While the villagers were good, he didn’t think anyone could best him even without magic. He was a dragon after all. Then, he heard a giggle beside him and looked at Zero thoughtfully.

Maybe there was someone worth sparring with after all. Olaf wondered if Hua Tuo would be angry when he came back to find out that Olaf messed around with Zero for a bit. The boy was so focussed on studying techniques that the Frost Dragon didn’t know if any of that would be retained in an actual battle situation. He heard from Ruth, Zero’s combat instructor, that the boy had some sparring experience with Ruth and Mitchnew before his cultivation training. Olaf didn’t know if getting knocked around counted as sparring but found himself getting more interested in what Zero could come up with after witnessing the matches.

Bob’s face came to mind and Olaf pouted. Even if Hua Tuo wasn’t angry, his friend would definitely hold it against him for bullying his master. Then again, the best way to teach a dragon how to fly was to push it off a cliff. Right?